Guys……I’ve found a super exciting way to add to your food preps. I am so excited to write about this topic I don’t even know where to begin.
Aside from my canned seafood and canned meats and soups, I have been exploring the options for some bulk items. In every day life I’m not very motivated to eat canned green beans or carrots, and the best by date (best for freshness, not safety) on a lot of these items at my grocery store are underwhelming. You can definitely eat canned food after the best by date and it is totally safe, but the food could lose color and more importantly, about half of its nutritional value.
I’m starting to look into freeze drying food, but freeze driers are expensive, and I’ve been so busy with work and other things lately I feel like I don’t have time to learn a new skill at the moment. I started looking on Amazon for freeze dried food, and after doing some research I discovered LDS canneries.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Ladder Day Saints, also known as the Mormons, make prepping a part of their religion. I didn’t know that until recently. All I knew was that Mitt Romney is a Mormon, and that they are partial to Utah and Idaho. Well it turns out that if you are a Mormon, you must be a prepper and have stored food that you can rely on. So even Mitt Romney has canned food in his basement in case of emergency. That’s a funny thought to me, but I probably have a strange sense of humor.
Here’s where it really gets interesting though. There are LDS canneries all over the United States and Canada, and I just went to my first one last week. You do not have to be a Mormon to shop at the LDS cannery. Nobody will try to talk to you about religion while you are there. You won’t be asked if you are a Ladder Day Saint or Mormon. It is a business that is a part of the church, and they are happy to have you as a customer.
Would you believe that almost everything they sell is good for 30 years? That is amazing! No need to rotate stock there! The food is also of high quality and the prices are very reasonable as well. I drove almost 2 hours to visit a LDS cannery in Michigan, and it was well worth the trip!
The canned foods come in what is referred to as a #10 can, which is the size of large cans that restaurants use (think the big tomato sauce can at the pizza shop). A #10 can can hold 109 ounces of liquid, just shy of a gallon. You can either buy foods in a single #10 can or you can buy a big box of 6 of the #10 cans. I personally don’t think a box is necessary, unless you have a large family to look after. As a single man I am comfortable buying 1-2 cans of each food that I like, as I don’t envision needing to survive for more than 3 weeks or so. They people in charge will move heaven and earth to ensure that everyone doesn’t die. That’s the way I see things anyways.
Most of the items that they sell that aren’t canned would be considered “bulk foods”. Flour,
